Awkward Rescue
by jojojojo01
Summary: Personal issues cause tensions during a rescue


An Awkward Rescue

This is my first Thunderbirds are Go fic, hope you enjoy it...reviews welcome.

"Alan...Alan wake up" Scott said, gently shaking his brother awake. Alan woke with a start to find his oldest brother standing over him

"Scott?" Alan said nervously, his voice trembling almost as much as his body was

"You okay?" Scott asked concerned

"Yeah, just...it's nothing" Alan replied as he forced himself on to his feet, gently pushing Scott's hand away as he tried to help him up off the floor "What's up?"

"John's just called in, we have a rescue...I'll fill you in on the way" Scott told him "Will you be okay?" he asked eyeing up his little brother. Although the initial fear that was in Alan's eyes had gone, he still looked pale and shaken up

"Honestly Scott I'll be fine. Let's do this" he said trying his best to sound more enthusiastic than he actually felt at that moment. Although the blonde was sure that Scott had seen through his little charade. As much as Alan loved the rush and excitement of getting to fly his ship, at that moment he would have given anything to have not been going on this mission with Scott.

They both left Alan's bedroom and ran into the lounge, straight to the seats that would take them down to Thunderbird 3. On the way down, Scott kept glancing over at his baby brother. Despite Alan not giving anything away, Scott's big brother intuition had gone into over drive. He knew something wasn't right and he was determined to find out what it was. Once they were suited up and onboard Thunderbird 3 – Alan in the pilot seat with Scott next to him the co-pilots chair, Alan completed his pre-flight checks and they were ready to go. Alan fired up Three's engines and they blast up out of the hangar and into the air.

Scott once again looked over at Alan and noticed that is usual excitement that his brother oozed during launch was missing. "Thunderbirds are go" Scott announced as Tracy Island shrank behind them. The lack of any retort from Alan at the fact that Scott had been the one to say those words never came.

Something definitely wasn't right.

Scott was about to say something when John's hologram appeared.

"Okay guy's here's what I have so far" suddenly John's image was joined by that of a small space freighter "This is the freighter Holliday. She is carrying supplies and building materials over to the new base on the moon. The problem was I understand it is that they strayed into a small asteroid field and sustained some damage"

"As you understand it?" Scott asked a little annoyed at John's vagueness.

John's hologram turned his focus towards the older Tracy "Yes Scott, unfortunately I have not been able to contact the Holliday's crew. My guess is that the damage caused by the impact also damaged their communication systems"

"Which is where we come in" Alan commented rather unenthusiastically. John looked over at Alan then back at Scott, who just gave a small shrug of his shoulders

"Is everything okay Alan?" John asked. Scott was glad that John had noticed that Alan wasn't his usual self; it meant that he wasn't imagining things.

"I'm fine" Alan snapped "I wish everyone would stop asking me that" angrily Alan pressed a few buttons on his control panel. "Hey Scott, any chance you could go and check on the equipment?" he asked, this time his tone was a little softer, but the meaning behind his words wasn't difficult to miss. He clearly wanted Scott out of his way for a while

"FAB" Scott replied as he lifted his restraints before pushing himself out of his seat and floating over to the hatch at the back of the cockpit. Before he went through the hatch, Scott glanced back over at Alan. His baby brother was still talking to John and although he couldn't see Alan's face or hear what was being said, he could tell by the look on John's face that Alan's behaviour was becoming a concern.

Letting out a small sigh, Scott slipped through the hatch and into Thunderbird 3's cargo bay. Scott was well aware of the reason why Alan had asked him to leave the cockpit and it had nothing to do with checking the equipment. Knowing Brains the gear in the hold had been checked and triple checked before installed. No, Scott knew that Alan wanted him out of his way- but the most annoying part was that he had no idea why. His thoughts were broken by John's hologram appearing in the space in front of him.

"Okay Scott, spill...what's going on with you two?" Scott pulled a face at John which told him that he had no idea what to tell him. "Well something's not right between you two...I can feel the tension all the way from here. Plus Alan isn't his usual hyperactive self" John added

"I honestly don't know what to tell you John" Scott admitted with a shrug "He's been acting like this ever since I went to get him for this rescue"

"Hmmm" came John's reply

"I'll talk to him properly once the rescue is completed"

"FAB" John replied "It might be best if you get back to your seat" Scott nodded his agreement just as John's image faded to nothing. As he made his way back to the cockpit, Scott felt a wave of apprehension wash over him and he knew it had nothing to do with the rescue. As he fastened himself back into the co-pilots seat he realised he was feeling that way because he didn't know what to say to Alan.

Thankfully after glancing out of Three's main window, Scott realised that that wouldn't be a problem. Floating right in front of them was the freighter. Scott let out a small sigh of relief, both because it was clear that although the Holliday had sustained some damage to its hull, the vessel was still intact; but partly it was relief because he could just concentrate on being in rescue mode rather than big brother mode.

"Any heat signatures?" He asked as he looked over at Alan. Alan pressed a few buttons on his panel before he responded

"Four" he replied "All located in the Holliday's cargo hold. According to the information John gave us, there are only four crew members on board"

Scott nodded "So all crew are accounted for then, that's a relief" he commented as he reached for the communication control in front of him "Freighter Holliday, this is International Rescue. Do you copy?"

After several moments of waiting for a response, they got nothing

"Can we get a lock on them...tow the freighter to the moon base ourselves?" Scott asked his brother

A look of serious concentration caused Alan's brow to furrow as he examined Thunderbird 3's readouts of the freighter in front of him

"I think so, but we'll have to move slowly" Alan told him

"FAB"

"But I think it might be best if we evacuate the crew before we attempt it" Alan added. Scott looked over at his brother and gave him a quick nod and a small smile before he got back up out of his seat

"I'll go over in the evacuation pod and get them out of there two at a time. If you can co-ordinate with John and the moon base, we can sort out getting the Holliday to where it was supposed to be"

Alan's response was nothing more than a grunt, which under normal circumstances would have surprised Scott. But considering that Alan wasn't acting normally, Scott thought it was best to just ignore it for the time being and get on with the rescue. He made his way back into the cargo hold and prepared the pod; watching as the evacuation pod was assembled right before his eyes. Once it was completer he climbed in, ready to go.

"Pod complete, ready to begin evacuation" Scott told Alan over the comms.

"FAB" came Alan's short supply as the outer hatch opened, revealing to Scott the vastness of space. Scott left Thunderbird 3 and carefully flew the pod through the debris field towards the freighter.

"This is International Rescue calling the Holliday, can you read me?" Scott tried the radio again, hoping that he would get a response now that he was closer to the vessel

"This is...lliday...national..scue...we glad to ...ear your ...ice" was all that Scott could make out form their reply. But at least it was better than nothing.

"Holliday, you're comms keep breaking up. I am coming over in an evacuation pod" Scott explained "I will evacuate you two at a time. Is that understood?"

"Affirmative" came the reply. As he had gotten nearer, Scott noticed that comms were becoming even clearer. Clear enough that he was able to make out that the voice from the freighter was that of a woman.

"Okay, I'm approaching the cargo bay doors now. Can you open them for me?" he asked. However instead of a verbal response, the cargo bay doors slowly began to open. "I guess that's a yes" Scott said to himself as he carefully manoeuvred the pod inside.

"How's the evacuation going?" John asked Alan.

As requested by Scott, John and Alan had made arrangements for Thunderbird 3 to tow the Holliday to the moon base.

"Scott's on his way back with the last two crew members now" he informed John "I'm sure glad that Brains fitted Three with the new evacuation pods...being able to rescue two people at a time has meant that his evacuation had gone a lot quicker..."

"That also means that you can get the crew and the freighter to the base sooner" John commented

Alan nodded "Yeah, then we can get back home" Alan added, the far off look in his eye causing John to worry all over again

"Alan, are you sure you're alright?"

"I've got my lines in place on the Holliday just waiting for the all clear from Scott, then we can get moving" he said instead, ignoring John's question

"FAB" John replied before ending his communication.

A couple of hours later and the mission had been a complete success. Although it hadn't been a particularly exerting rescue, having to concentrate so hard when towing the Holliday had been difficult; leaving Alan exhausted. So they were both glad to be heading home.

Although the trip back to earth would be a relatively short one, Scott decided to take advantage of it and find out what was going on with Alan.

"Okay Alan out with it. What's bothering you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine" Alan replied, his voice quiet

"Come on Alan, I know that's not true. You've been acting weirdly around me ever since we started this rescue. So what's wrong, have I done something to upset you...because I've been trying to work out what it might be that I've done..."

"You hit me" the words left Alan's mouth before he could stop them; cutting Scott off.

"Hit you?" Scott replied visibly shocked "I never..."

"It was after you found out that I had damaged Thunderbird 1" Alan added nervously

"Alan, what the hell are you talking about...what damage to Thunderbird 1?"

"I had to use Thunderbird 1 to fight off the zombie attack..." he began but stopped abruptly, his eyes wide in realisation; his face turning red with embarrassment.

"You had another nightmare after falling asleep playing that zombie attack game again, didn't you?"

"UH-huh" Alan responded, his face now almost the same shade of red as his sash. "You had barged into my room screaming and shouting about the damage I had caused to Thunderbird 1 and when I tried to explain what happened you hit me. I fell over and you were just stood there looking down at me; so when you came into my room to tell me about the rescue..."

"You got all confused, thought that your dream was real and that I'd really hit you?" Scott finished

"Yeah. At first all that I remembered was that you had hit me but I didn't know why. Then other parts of the dream started to come back to me and..." Alan didn't finish, instead he just gave a small shrug

"I can't believe that you'd think that I'd actually hit you" Scott said incredulously

"I know you wouldn't Scott, that's why it was all so confusing. Please Scott...please, don't tell anyone else about this. Please...especially not Gordon..." he begged. They both knew that if Gordon knew about what had happened he would never let Alan live it down.

Scott didn't reply straight away and his silence worried Alan. But after a few moments of uncomfortable (well for Alan anyway) silence, a huge smile broke out across Scott's face

"Don't worry Alan, you're secret is safe with me"

Alan gave Scott a massive smile, which Scott returned. Both brothers grateful that things were back to the way it should be between them once again.


End file.
